抄録
This paper presents Toyota's production structure in detail. Since the 1990s, the Japanese economy has undergone transformation such as an information society and globalization, and this paper analyzes how Toyota and its parts suppliers have been coping with these changes, so as to maintain vitality. Toyota still maintains its hierarchical structure almost intact. One big change is found in its "wide extension, " which means Toyota recommends its parts suppliers to supply parts to other automobile assemblers. This helps its parts suppliers to secure sales and to decrease costs due to the larger amount of production, and this provides basis to international competitiveness in order to survive fierce global competition.
